New research released today by WinMagic shows that 87% of ITDMs limit their use of the cloud because of the complexity of managing regulatory compliance. A quarter (24%) said, it meant as a result, they only work with a single cloud vendor in their infrastructure, rather than exploit the benefits of a multi-cloud environment, such as cost effectiveness, flexibility, reliability, security and avoiding vendor lock-in.

Hands tied by management tools

The survey, which spoke to ITDMs in Germany, India, the UK and US, also noted that 63% felt the need to use multiple infrastructure management tools was also a hugely restricting factor in their use of multiple cloud vendors.

Looking specifically at managing security compliance across the enterprise, over a quarter (28%) stated they would "not be completely confident" IT systems met all the required processes and standards if an audit was called "today". 7% went as far as to say there was "a high risk of them failing."

Good security compliance benefits highlighted

On the positive-side, platform-agnostic management tools that enable enterprises to implement solid security and compliance policies across on-premises and cloud providers are bringing proven benefits. ITDMs reported a number of benefits in terms of efficiency and cost savings:

63% improved the efficiency of their systems

57% now had enforced compliance across the infrastructure

56% say they are more secure

32% have made measurable cost savings

30% believe their risk exposure is lower

"The benefits of good security management tools are clear in the survey, but the pain caused by poor tools even more so, with companies restricted on their infrastructure choices and placed at greater risk of regulatory fines," said Mark Hickman, Chief Operating Officer at WinMagic. "But poor security compliance is so much more dangerous, putting company data at risk of data breaches, both accidental and through theft, by hackers or even employees. WinMagic SecureDoc CloudVM offers a common platform with less complexity, more flexibility and that is highly secure on the widest range of virtualized and cloud environments, freeing ITDMs to pursue a multi-cloud mixed infrastructure and all the benefits that come with it."